This is who we are.
Karl Lacey rations the new-wave of competitiveness to the nature of the GAA.
The Donegal legend has been around the block enough times without picking up so much as a milk crate that he’ll take crawling around it through the mud now for the medals bestowed on him in the last four years.
Sure, not everyone gets the reward at the end of the day. Joe Brolly tells us that 99 per cent will come out as losers. He asks, ‘what’s the point?’ But, if you take away Karl Lacey’s All-Ireland medal from 2012 – one of the hardest earned All-Ireland medals ever – take away his three Ulster titles along the way, and he’d still do the same. He’d do it all the same. Over and over again.
The Four Masters man explains it with four simple words: passion for the game.
He wanted to instill pride back in the jersey he has been serving for over a decade now. He wanted to give something back to his natives who had been suffering since 1992 without a sniff of championship success. For him, commitment isn’t a choice or a command. It’s a calling.
“There’s nobody coming to the house and dragging us out on a Tuesday or Thursday night,” Lacey spoke with SportsJOE as he was unveiled as a new mentor on Sky Sports’ Living for Sport scheme. “As players, it’s your own choice and there’s a lot of talk I suppose in the media at the minute about it but you don’t hear any of the players giving out about it. To be honest, the players are probably looking for more training if anything. Individually, they’re on to coaches all the time saying can you take me this session or that session. With the players, it’s grand.
“It is a massive commitment and I know a lot of people are putting their lives on hold for it and that’s their choice. I’ve been very grateful and very lucky that I have an All-Ireland medal to show for it. When you get the success, it’s more rewarding.
“But it’s your passion for the game, it’s your love for the sport. That’s why you go out at six o’clock in the morning, freezing, putting about 20 layers on you heading out the door. It’s the love of the game. The big thing that we had over the course of the last four years with Donegal is giving something back to the people of Donegal. They’re tremendous supporters up in Donegal and they follow us the lengths and breadths of the country. To give something back to them, like bringing an Ulster championship back to Donegal Town on a summer’s Sunday evening or bringing Sam Maguire back in September 2012, that’s what it’s all about. That’s why you give these commitments.”
And the Donegal Town native looks at the start of the National League this weekend and he licks his lips. He doesn’t roll his eyes at the thought of another slog about to start. He sees Derry coming to Ballybofey on a Saturday night under lights, a headline clash every week in Division One, and a new regime testing the water in time for an Ulster defence.
“We’re looking forward to this,” he smiled. “Rory [Gallagher] was there for three years out of four with Jim and he was a massive part of that. He was a huge part of what we were all about for the last three years and it’s great to have someone like that coming in so you’re not taking a step back really, you’re just continuing on from where you’re at. Rory knows the players, he knows what level and what sort of commitment it takes and he knows our strengths and weaknesses so it’s good to have that right from the start at this time of the year.
“He’s put his backroom team together, there are new faces in and it’s good to have that bit of freshness about. We’re out now against Derry on Saturday night and it’s very hard to know at this time of the year where you’re at but we’ll know come Saturday night what sort of shape we’re in.”
After Derry? Dublin.
“That’s the way it has gone now. GAA has become so competitive. Even now the McKenna Cup and the O’Byrne Cup and the FDB League and stuff are competitive and it’s great to see. And I suppose after the disappointment we had last year in the final, this is our first real chance now to set things right again and it would be a massive lift for us to get a win on Saturday night and set the tone for the year and set the tone for the supporters and people to know that Donegal are back again and that they mean business this year.
“It was a hard pill to swallow at the time and it was with us, to be honest, right up until Christmas time. Once you get the new season under way, you start to forget about it and put your focuses elsewhere. It was disappointing, definitely but it’s up to us as players to put that right now and look at the 2015 season. We’ve had one retirement so every man’s willing to give it everything again.”
One retirement. From the group who are supposed to be one of the guilty perpetrators of ‘training too much’ and ‘sucking the life out of the game’. One retirement after an All-Ireland final loss. One retirement after a four-year regime came to an end. These lads aren’t sick of it. They’re raring to go again.
“You’re looking to improve all the time,” Lacey said. “That’s the argument there that maybe the players are doing too much and it’s becoming too much on the body but, again, it’s a player’s choice and nobody knows their own body better than themselves. They know what they can handle and what they can take. Every team’s looking for an extra edge. Maybe another team might do an extra session a week just to be better than the other team and it’s the same with players – you know, competitiveness for positions. If you feel that you’re lacking a bit of pace compared to another player playing in your position then you’re going to ask the coach to take you for an extra session so you can get up to speed.
“That’s the nature of sport and it’s the nature of the GAA player. They’re just competitive and they want to be the best they can be. That’s who we are.”
Come Saturday night, Karl Lacey won’t be lying back thinking thank God that’s all behind him. He’ll be back on the front line ready to head into the breach again. Ready for war.
And, doing it for Donegal, he wouldn’t be anywhere else in the world.
Sky Sports Living for Sport, part of Sky Academy, announces 12 new Athlete Mentors with Ambassador Katie Taylor. To find out more and to get involved with Sky Sports Living for Sport visit www.skysports.com/livingforsport.
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